Orchids
by Tie-dyed Trickster
Summary: Kakarrot and Chichi made a deal a few months ago, and she's held up her end. Now it's time to see if he'll hold up his. Part 27 of the Geta!verse
Chichi scowled and kicked at a stone. It had been almost five months since Kakarrot flew off, promising to return when he was taller, with flowers and flying lessons. She'd figured he would wait a week or two, then show up in thick-soled shoes with a tree branch or something, claiming that this was what flowers looked like on his home planet. Oh, and another dead dinosaur, as a 'courtship gift.'

Actually, the dinosaur might not be so poorly received – she and pa had almost finished the last one, and meat prices had been up lately, since the spikey-haired butcher had stopped coming to town about two months back. Chichi's father the Ox King was wealthy, but Chichi herself had a frugal nature, and, besides, thriftiness was only sensible. If she and her pa spent all his money now, there'd be none left for her children, assuming she had any. Which was looking less likely by the day.

Which brought her back to her initial irritation. Namely, a stupid monkey-tailed boy who made promises and got your hopes up with pretty words, only to go away and never come back. Maybe she should stop coming to this market – it was right on the edge of her father's territory, a two-day ride by motorbike. Then again, it was a very good market – reasonable prices, nice merchandise. And pa always said that if you didn't keep an eye on your borders, then next time you looked they wouldn't be _your_ borders anymore.

Sighing, she began rummaging in one pocket of her pants under her cheongsam for her capsulized motorbike. It was big, clunky, and unfeminine, but it went like spit, so she overlooked these facts. Well… to be fair it was only mostly unfeminine. Pa must have painted it before he gave it to her for her last birthday, because there was no way the manufacturers had produced a bike like this in raspberry pink. And they certainly wouldn't have painted the tires. It was sweet of him, really – the Ox King might be one of the most feared fighters in the world, but he tried to do right by Chichi, even if he didn't know much about how to raise a little girl, let alone one who was growing into a lively young woman.

Still, she thought as her hand finally found the capsule in question, she was getting a little tired of pink. And the paint was starting to flake pretty badly, since the Ox King hadn't realised you used a different type of paint for motorbikes than you did houses. Maybe she should repaint it herself. Violet, maybe? But she'd begun wearing a fair bit of that colour lately, so maybe a contrasting colour would be better, like yellow. Yellow could be pretty fun – it was bright, and if she got the shade right, the bike would blend into the desert, and it would look like she was flying from a distance…

A shrill giggle interrupted her thoughts, and she turned to see a group of teens – mostly female – flocked around a handsome young man who must have just walked into town. Not too tall, maybe five foot, about the same height as her, but obviously still growing, and nicely muscled under his orange haori and the tight brown top he wore beneath it. His face was square-ish, losing the last of its baby fat, and his hair-

-was an extremely familiar bird's nest of black spikes. And she would bet her father's entire fortune that that furry-looking brown belt was actually a tail wrapped neatly around a trim waist. For a moment, she merely stared in shock. He hadn't been kidding about growing taller. And now that he looked his age, instead of maybe ten at the most-

Then he laughed at something one of the girls (or maybe it had been a guy, there were a few of them mixed in there) said, and Chichi saw red. He had asked _her_ to wait for him. He'd said _she_ was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen. And now here he was, flirting with those- those- **floozies** , right in front of her! Well, she wasn't going to take this lying down! No one messed with the Ox Princess's heart and got away with it! Kakarrot might have forgotten he was taken, but she was going to remind him in no uncertain terms! Then probably dump his ass for being a two-timing manipulative jerk!

"HEY!"

The group looked up to see the angry young woman stomping over, face red. She stopped in front of the group, hands on her hips, glaring at the figure in the center. "And just what do ya think you're doin'?!"

A couple of youths surrounding Kakarrot giggled, and several others rolled their eyes when they saw who it was. Kakarrot, for his part, looked a little stunned.

"Oh look, it's the ox princess," a girl murmured to one of the boys, in a tone that contained far too much 'ox' and not nearly enough 'princess,' as usual. Chichi snarled, about to light into the pair when-

"Chichi!"

Kakarrot had apparently found his voice at last, and he was beaming at her. "I thought I felt you nearby! Where were you?"

Chichi spun, her rage focusing on this new, voluntary target, and stuck a finger in his face. "You! What the hell are you doin'?! You said you wanted _me_!" And dammit, she was _angry_ , not hurt, not hurt at all, just pissed that she'd upheld the bargain and he hadn't! She was just so angry her eyes were watering a little; that was all. Happened all the time. Really.

He blinked at her, surprised. "But I do want you."

This caused a rustling within the group of admirers. This handsome stranger liked the rough, uncivilized Ox Princess? Seriously?

Chichi just glared. "Fine way you have of showing it, letting this lot crawl all over you! Why don't you just chase 'em off, if it's me you're after?!"

He tilted his head at her, expression puzzled. "But I'm not supposed to do that."

Chichi blinked. She'd heard that matter-of-fact tone before – a bit too often for her liking, actually – usually when he was talking about his weird 'saiyan' customs. So she toned down her expression from a full-on scowl to a mere frown and folded her arms expectantly. "Explain."

"I'm supposed to let you beat off any other contenders for my attention, so you can show off your strength and worthiness, and I do the same for anyone who comes sniffing after you," he replied, brows furrowed, "That's how it works here, too, right? Only I told Bulma about the courtship gifts and stuff, and she yelled at me for an hour." He rubbed his chin in his hand. "I was sure this one applied here, Geta and Bulma have spats all the time, and they like each other…"

Chichi, meanwhile, felt a slightly vicious smile growing on her face. "Wait, let me get this straight. What yer sayin' is that you'd be just fine with me beatin' this lot to a pulp for flirting with you, assuming I still want you?"

He frowned a bit at this. "Hey, I grew taller, and I figured out the flying thing, so you have to give me a chance – that was the deal! But, yeah, about the beating bit, yeah, you got it."

She felt her smile widen, and turned her attention back towards Kakarrot's admirers. "Well, you heard the boy," she smirked as she cracked her knuckles.

Her peers might have doubted her ability to get a boyfriend, but _no one_ questioned Chichi's fighting prowess. By the time Chichi had finished assuming her stance, there was no sign of the group except for some clouds of dust. Kakarrot whistled and Chichi grinned at him.

"Impressed?"

"Very." He nodded, then looked around hopefully. "Do you think anyone'll come flirt with you soon?" his tail had uncurled from his waist and was waving carelessly behind him now.

"Highly doubtful."

"Aw…" he pouted, "I wanted to show off, too – I've gotten lots stronger since last time you saw me! Oh well, I brought you these." Bringing his hand up, he held out a stalk of snowy white orchids that had been hidden in the folds of his haori before. "The last bit of the deal – flowers, as promised."

Chichi gulped, and took the stalk with fingers that shook only slightly. She'd wanted flowers, yes, but orchids… "Where did you find these?"

Kakarrot grinned, scratching the back of his head. "They grow all over the jungle, if you know where to look. And I know a guy who does – he could navigate the whole place with his tail knotted! – and he showed me where to find some different types. Why, are you impressed?"

She met his grin with one of her own. "Very." She held them up and admired the delicate blossoms. "I wish I had a mirror with me, so I could braid them into my hair."

"I could probably do it for you," Kakarrot offered, falling into step beside her as she began to head to the edge of the village.

She looked up at him from admiring her orchids, surprised. "You can braid?"

"Yuh-huh!"

" _Why_?"

An impish light came into his eyes. "Because of Raditz."

"Who's Raditz?"

"My big brother," he explained cheerfully, "You've probably seen him in the market – he's really tall and has reeeeeally long black hair and a royal's point."

"What's a royal's point?"

"You know, when you hairline comes down like this." He pushed up his bangs and traced a 'v' in the middle of his own forehead.

"Oh! We call that a widow's peak." Chichi nodded, "Yeah, I've seen him befo- wait, he's your brother?!"

"Yup."

Chichi eyed her potential boyfriend warily. "Just how big are you gonna _get_?"

Kakarrot shrugged. "I dunno, maybe another foot? A bit less? The second spurt's never as big as the first, that's what Raditz says, anyway, and that's how it worked for him. It's not supposed to be as hard, either, and that's looking like it's generally true – Geta's going through his second spurt right now, and he's not nearly as bad as I've been the past few months!" he paused, frowning, "But Geta's also got brain damage, so that might have something to do with it."

"Who's Geta?" Chichi asked.

"Geta's really Prince Vegeta, but he forgot about that because of the brain damage. You probably know him, too – he lives near here and sells dinosaur meat and coconuts at the market and has hair even spikier than mine! Oh, and he doesn't wear shirts, which makes Bulma happy."

"…right." Chichi nodded and decided to focus on the question that had gotten this barrage of information started and worry that her favorite butcher might be crazy later. "So, Raditz gets you to braid his hair for him? I wouldn't have thought it would all _fit_ in one braid!"

"It doesn't," Kakarrot smirked, "But if you put a few loose braids in the middle of it while he's sleeping, he can't feel them from the outside and you can get him to pull his own hair when he brushes it."

Chichi snorted. "I'm assumin' he's not too fond of you doing this?"

"He usually threatens to shove me out the airlock after I do," Kakarrot beamed, "But he can't do that anymore because we're planet-side and I'm stronger than him now! I've just had my first spurt, and I've been achieving zenkai a lot lately on top of that!"

"Achieving zenkai?" Now her head really _was_ spinning.

"Yeah," he grinned, then looked around. "I don't see any place good for you to sit nearby, but there's a flat rock near the edge of the village that would work – for braiding your hair," he added at her look.

"Oh, okay." They walked over, Chichi telling him a bit about her life on Fry Pan Mountain when he asked. He'd followed the question up with the comment that someone named Bulma had told him to ask it, but he listened attentively enough as she talked, especially when she described her battles. When they got to the rock, she sat down and somewhat hesitantly pulled her hair out of its ponytail. This boy had taken down dinosaurs – on his own, if he were to be believed (and that belief was getting easier and easier) – and part of her mind was picturing just how badly he could hurt her if he pulled too hard, but he surprised her again, this time with his gentleness as he finger-combed her hair.

"Yer good at this," she commented happily, "Ya learn this from yer brother, too?"

"Yeah," she could tell from his voice that he was smiling, "Bulma says it's 'one of those saiyan things.' Hand me the flowers?"

She complied. "Who's this 'Bulma,' anyway? You two sound like you know each other pretty well." And she wasn't jealous, honestly, she wasn't. She was just… curious, that was all.

Kakarrot laughed. "She's a good friend. She's gonna be mates with Geta someday, only don't tell her that, 'cause she 'n' Geta are the only two who don't know that yet, and Raditz says we should let it be a surprise. And then rub their noses in it."

OoOoOoOoO

 _Chichi starts training with the others after this as well._

 _Just so you all know, we're in the final stretch of Geta!verse now – we're going to have some very large time jumps, and, well, the series is going to end. I have some sort of 'epilogue' pieces that aren't typed and which I'll post as they get typed, but there's only about five segments left in the series proper, including at least one two-parter. It's been a fun ride, but it's almost over._


End file.
